Mouthpiece for wood-wind musical instruments



W. NAUJOKS AND E. McLAUGHLIN.

' MOUTHP| ECE FOR woon wmo MUSICAL lNSTRUME-NTS. APPLICATION FILED MAYH,1921.

1,413,929. Patented Apr. 25, 1922.

UNITED STATESPATENT OFFICE.

I mm eurons AND nvnnnrr MQLAIIGHLIN, or Los ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

' MOUTHPIECE ron WOOD-.WIND MusIcAr. INSTRUMENTS.

To all 210 7mm may concern! Be it known that we',.WILnmM. and EVERETTMGLAUGHLIN, citizens of the United States, and residents of Los Angeles,

in the county of Los Angeles and State of California, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Mouthpieces for \Vood-WVindMusical Instruments,l of which the following is a specification- Thisinvention relates to mouthpleces of the character employed in wood w ndmusical instruments, for example, clarinet-s and Saxophones. h

An object of the invent on 1S to so construct the mouthpiece that theheat of the players mouth will not soften the mouthpiece to such anextent asto cause the wall thereof to get out of shape.

In the clarinet and some other types of wood wind musical instruments,the' bore of the mouthpiece is small with respect to the outsidediameter, so that the walls are com- I pa-ratively thick and are notreadilysoftened by the heat of the players mouth. .Therefore, in thistype of'instrument there is very V little tendency for the shape or sizeofthe mouthpiece bore to be changed or for the of the reed to beaffected. On the contrary, it is necessary to make bore of themouthpiece of a saxophone relatively large, thus entailing comparativelythin walls which are subjected to softening, by the heat of the playersmouth, to such a degree that after being used a short time'the shape andsize of the bore change and the lay of the reed is affected, thus makingit necessary to throw away the mouthpiece and substitute a new onetherefor. g

Another object of this invention is to prevent change of shape and sizeof the mouthpiece bore and of the lay of the reed.

To effect the foregoing objects, a metal insert is provided on which thereed is mounted and vibrates. lWhile it is not new to employ a metalinsert'for clarinets and other instruments having small boremouthpieces, it has not beenpossible heretofore to employ the metalinsert for the mouthpieces of saxophones, for the reason that theexisting inserts are not so construotedas to admit of a relatively largebore for the mouthpieces. By this invention we make possible theapplication of a metal insert to the mouthpieces of Saxophones. Thoughthe invention is especially useful in connection with Saxophones, forthe reasons given NAUJOKS Specification of Letters Patent. Pate t dA1113 i Application filed. May 11,

1921. Serial No. 468,517. 1

above, it is to be understood that it is not limited thereto but that itcan be used to advantage with other wood wind instru hard rubber orother non-metallic material of the character preferred for theconstruction of the mouthpieces of wood wind musical instruments,the.upper portion of the body forming a plane face 2 to receivethe planeface 3 of a metal insertindicated in general by the character 4;. Thisinsert 4 may be made of germansilver or, any other suitablemetal. Theinetal insert- 4- 'is fastened by'pins 5 or any other suitable means tothe body 1 and is provided with an opening 6 over whichthe reed. notshown ex" tends in a manner well understood in this art. As iswell'known, it isnecessaryfor the lay of the reed to be such that thereis more or less space between it and the mouthpiece opening so thatthereed will be caused to vibrate when the player blows through i themouthpiece. This necessary space for vibration of the reed is ordinarilysecured by slightly bevelingoff the face against which the reedvibrates, that is to say, the face of the body of the mouthpiece or, inthe case of the metal insert of clarinet mouthpieces. the outer face ofsuch insert. The insert 4; is provided with a slightly beveled face 7 ofthis description, the thicker portion of the insert being substantiallymidway between the ends of the opening 6 as indicated at 8. It will beunderstood from the construction hereinafter to be describedthat thisbeveled face is notabsolutely nec essary and that it may be increased bythe user of the instrument at any time by filing or grinding it off.

The construction thus far described is not new. To provide for adesirable amount of space between. the reed and'the tip of the insert,without the necessity of beveling theface 7 to too great a degree, wereduce the thickness of the insert from the portion 8 to the rear end ofthe insert or, in other words, bevel the insert towards its rear end asshown at 9 so as to elevate the :t'orward end of the reed when it is inplace on the insert, and thus space the forward end of the reed from theiorward end of theinsert, even though the beveling of-the front end ofthe unit be omitted. It the tip of the insert were beveled to acomparatively thin edge, there would not be suliicient metal to beafterwards removed by the owner of the instrument in the event that heso desired. By the construction just describei'l, we are enabled toleave suflicient metal at the tip so that it can be subsequently madethinner, and at the same time we have provided for initially spacing thetip of the reed from the tip of the insert without thickenin, the insertto such degree as would cut down the diameter of the bore 9 of themouthpiece or increase the outside diameter of the mouthpiece.

A mouthpiece constructed as above described will last for many yearswithout the shape and dial'neter of the bore or the lay of the reedbeing in the least affected by the warmth of the players mouth. This isof considerable advantage, for the reason that once the player hasestablished the lay oi the reed to suit him it will remain perfectlyadjusted. whereas with the saxophone moutlr pieces at present employedit is necessary for the players to constantly replace them and re-adjustthe lay of the reeds every time new mouthpieces are adopted.

'VVe claim:

1. In a mouthpiece of the character described, the combination of a bodyhaving a bore and cut away on its upper face, and a metal insert mountedon said. upper face and provided with an opening communicating;

with the bore, said insert being; reduced in thickness from a pointlying between the ends of the ol.)ening to the rear end oi? the insert.

2. in a mouthpiece of the character dcscribed, the combination of a bodyhaving a bore and having a Hat upper face, and a metal insert providedwith a plane taco seated on the Hat itace oi the body, the insert beingprovided with an'opening communicating; with the bore. and the insertbeing reduced in thickness from a point lying: between the ends ot theopening to the rear end of the insert.

3. In a mouthpiece of the character dcscribed. the combination oi a bodyhaving a bore and having a fiat upper face, and a .ie=.:al insertprovided with a plane face seated on the flat face of the body, theinsert being provided with an opening communieating with the bore andthe insert having its outer face beveled From a point lying between theends of the opening to the opposite ends of the insert.

4.111 a mouthpiece of the character described the combination of a bodyhaving a bore and cut away on its upper face, and a metal insert mountedon said upper face and provided with an opening communicating); with thebore. said insert being thicker :uljacent the opening;- and having abeveled outer lace extending trom the thiczer portion to the rear endaofthe insert so as to elerate the front endof a reed mounted on saidbeveled face.

Pvigued at Los Angreies, California, this :Tih day of May. i921. I

VILL WT NAUJOKS. EVERE .lT MoLAUGTILI N. Vi itnesses Gnonen H. HILES, L.BELLE WEAVER.

